As has been the case in many other microstates, São Tomé and Príncipe has suffered from a concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a relatively small and interlinked elite. There is considerable political rivalry (often family-based) between sections of the Creole (forro) elite that dominates society and politics on the islands. These rivalries are capable of generating considerable instability, as witnessed throughout the later 1970s and 1980s when, somewhat misleadingly, they took on an ideological guise.
As has been the case in many other microstates, São Tomé and Príncipe has suffered from a concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a relatively small and interlinked elite. There is considerable political rivalry (often family-based) between sections of the Creole (forro) elite that dominates society and politics on the islands. These rivalries are capable of generating considerable instability, as witnessed throughout the later 1970s and 1980s when, somewhat misleadingly, they took on an ideological guise.
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